Appearance of Colours

This post will account for the remaining half of the mesopelagic zone, from 600m to 1000m deep.

Colours

Underneath this tremendous volume, Nouvian demonstrates that there are “invisible frontiers” that divides this midwater zone. Each frontier is influenced by various factors, such as:

• Light levels
• Temperature
• Salinity
• Pressure and oxygen concentration

However, what is interesting is that animals with pigmented skin can be observed in this range, contrary to some of people’s expectation that the deeper the sea, the duller the animals’ colour would be. The colours range from bright red to dark brown.

Since most animals at these depths are bioluminescent, such pigments will serve to absorb the blue-green bioluminescence most animals create, thus allowing the predator to hide any biolumniscent sparks their prey may have emitted in their stomachs.

Since the colour, red, is the first wavelength to disappear into the water, it is unlikely for a marine animal’s predator to detect it as it will appear to be camouflaged by a “black cape”. Overall, in deeper and darker waters, having pigmented skin could be an advantage instead of a weakness (where predators are attracted to the prey’s coloured appearance).

The next zone will be 1km to 3km away.